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Bellevue, TBR
For the second section of Aquin, click here. Bellevue is a communal section in the Western Department of Haiti. It is the fourth communal section of Tabarre. History Caradeux Caradeux Habitation was originally a sugar plantation of the Cul-de-Sac Plain, then part of Port-au-Prince's des Varreux rural section. The famous colonist Jean Caradeux, so ferocious to his slaves, and who took the title of marquis, was the proprietor. Caradeux was commander of the Port-Republicain National Guard, from 1791 to 1793, during the general enfranchisement of slaves. He was rated the cruelest colonel that existed in Santo Domingo, so called Caradeux the Cruel. He arrogated to himself the right of life and death over his slaves. Rich, he often threw lavish parties: he then reunited the most distinguished white families by their prestige, and in their presence made his slaves dance on the terraces of the brilliant home. In the afternoon, the guests gave the ladies the spectacle of their address: a slave stood thirty paces in front of them with an orange on the head, and the ladies awarded the crown to the one who had slaughtered the golden apple of a pistol bullet. Happy the slave was, when he was not killed, or when he came out of these games without having a member shattered! Caradeux also had young men or naked old men tied to long boards, and lashed them with whips until they were covered with blood. The joy of the spectators was then at its height, and the turtles of these unfortunates excited in them no sentiment of compassion. The guests sometimes filled the office of the absent borrowers. The torture to which Caradeux was contaminating his slaves was to bury them to the waist, and thus to let them die, exposed to the rays of the sun, with a covered head of molasses. The stamps of Caradeux lived on many other habitations in the West, in the North, and in the South. The scoundrel of this settler was such that the Haitian farmers of the Cul-de-Sac Plain still tell of his atrocities, showing the travelers the ruins of his habitation and the terrace on which he was standing when he ordered a slave to be skinned alive. After the death of Colonel Mauduit on March 5, 1791, Caradeux was appointed by the white whites captain general of the National Guard of Port-Republicain, and replaced M. de Blanchelande, governor. He disapproved, however, of the conduct of the whites, who refused to execute the Concordat of September 11th, which they had signed under oath at Croix-des-Bouquets. This implacable enemy of the blacks and mulattoes, seeing their preponderance increasing in the West, was anxious to hate Saint Domingue; the slaves having ventured to raise their hands on their masters, he no longer doubted that the colony would soon escape the whites, and he told them that, having to fight one against twenty, they would inevitably succumb. Taking advantage of a moment of calm, he left for the United States in 1793, taking 50 slaves. This monster thus escaped the vengeance of 1804. He died in misery in Philadelphia, USA. Geography Neighboring sections Locations Category:Communal Sections Category:Ouest, Haiti Category:Port-au-Prince Arrondissement